Limulus amebocyte lysate undergoes clot (gel) formation along two enzymatic pathways. These enzymatic pathways comprise a series of serine proteases which are activated in the presence of either endotoxin or glucan. Limulus amebocyte lysate is widely used in assays, which take advantage of this activity, for detecting the presence of endotoxins, for example in water and in a variety of biological test samples.
Because the Limulus amebocyte lysate is much more sensitive to the presence of endotoxin than to glucan, however, the prior art has been unable to develop a successful glucan assay using Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL). The presence of just a small amount of endotoxin in a test sample results in a false positive result when attempting to detect glucan using LAL. Thus, there remains a need in the art for a method which can be used for specifically detecting glucan in a test sample.